We Will Meet Again, My Love
by mothwing'slove
Summary: Otulissa dreams of her heartache, Cleve. She desperately wants to see him again. She will go the distance to search for him...and when she does, who knows what will happen. Meanwhile, Gylfie is being possessed by a certain owl from the Pure Ones...
1. A Restless Night

**I have only just finished the sixth book so don't be critical and don't tell me what happens!**

A beautiful spotted owl started to close her eyes. Today had been a long and terrible day; a day of fighting. The owls of the Great Tree had just had a huge fight against the sinister group of all barn owls, the Pure Ones, led by Kludd, the blood-thirsty owl that was the brother of the spotted owl's friend, Soren. It was a long battle, and there was much bloodshed, but the owls of the Great Tree had won, after Twilight had killed Kludd.

Fortunately, while the small number of the Great Tree owls was vastly outnumbered, Gylfie, the spotted owl's friend, had come with reinforcements from the Northern Kingdoms. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts. She didn't like to think of the battle, it made her feathers tremble. If she thought about it anymore, she thought, she could possibly go yeep, a condition that happened to an owl when they were terribly confused or going mad. The spotted owl felt like it right now.

But these thoughts faded away as she got lulled to sleep by Madame Plonk's "Night Is Done" song, which was soothing and put almost all of the owls of the Great Tree to sleep. She ruffled her feathers grumpily as she heard the incessant, annoying snoring of Twilight. She was sharing a nest with Soren, Gylfie, Digger, and the rest of the Chaw of Chaws. Twilight in particular was the noisiest sleeper.

While she tried to count mice in her head, she heard a ruffling of feathers similar to hers. She saw Gylfie, who was glaring fiercely at the great gray. Her grip on the nest was tight and she looked really agitated. It looked like she would swoop down and score him with her sharp talons any second now.

"Gylfie, are you awake?" She whispered. She saw the elf owl nod.

"If he gets any noisier I think that I'll claw out his feathers one by one," Gylfie growled. "But I'll look on the bright side, tomorrow is a better day. I'm sure that I will get through tonight as I would any other night. But for some reason, I can't sleep tonight…I think it has to do with tonight's battle…" She shivered and shook her head.

The spotted owl could easily sympathize with the elf owl. The fight was very frightening, especially when the Pure Ones were armed with Fire Claws, which were Battle Claws that had little pieces of coal at the tips. It could make even the strongest owl with the strongest feathers cry out in pain and break into flames. It was a scary battle that was for sure.

Suddenly a sharp voice pierced the air. "Otulissa, Gylfie, shut you're frinking beaks! Can't you see that we're trying to sleep here?" It was Soren, the barn owl whose brother was Kludd, leader of the Pure Ones. He was particularly cranky at night.

Otulissa shook her head with dismay. Soren always said dirty words, thinking that it was okay to do. It was such an atrocity to say such words! Although Otulissa, the spotted owl, had said the worst word in the owl kingdom, "sprink" quite a few times.

The spotted owl changed her mind as she heard Gylfie say, "Well, sprink to that! Twilight is causing a ruckus here and I can't even sleep!"

Another barn owl, Soren's sister Eglantine, ruffled her feathers with annoyance. "But you always get to sleep! Why is it this particular night that you are restless?" She shook her head and curled back up to sleep.

Soren nodded. "She has a point, you know. Gylfie, you are the heaviest sleeper I have ever seen. You are always the first one to go to sleep, and I should know since I shared a nest with you guys for quite a while now."

Gylfie shook her head. "Well, Twilight must be extra loud tonight. I just can't seem to sleep tonight, that's all." She curled up and tried to sleep, her shoulders humped angrily. Soren had never been this mean to his best friend. They had always agreed or left it for someone else to deal with, never fought over it unless sensibly debating.

Otulissa shook her head. She must be going yeep with the memories of the battle. She finally started to sleep, a combination of the song sang by the lovely Madame Plonk and thoughts of her beloved Strix Struma, who was her idol that had earlier died. And when she thought of Strix Struma, her heart ached as it formed into thoughts of Cleve. Her Cleve. She sighed and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of someday when she would meet up with Cleve, the handsome prince.

And the Great Tree was silent for the rest of the day.


	2. The Kidnapping

Gylfie shifted in her sleep. She wasn't having bad dreams, she knew what happened to Eglantine and knew how to prevent it. But this didn't feel like a dream, it was more like a…presence. It was strange, it didn't make any sense to Gylfie. She shook her head and got up, ruffling her feathers from the cold.

The sun was just going down, and for some reason Gylfie felt like going to the library. She loved to get up early and read. For some reason it relaxed her.

She wasn't surprised to see Otulissa sitting at a chair, hunched over a book. Only she wasn't reading it…she was writing in it. Gylfie desperately wanted to see what she was writing, but she looked for a book instead. She pulled out a book that seemed to be about how yarping pellets seemed to make your gizzard stronger.

She turned to a diagram of a whiskered screech trying to stab a saw-whet with some kind of sword and the saw-whet's gizzard wasn't cracking at all. It was an interesting diagram, but Gylfie was going to look into it later. She wanted to know what was going on with Otulissa.

She was hovering over a large blank book, and it looked like she was writing fiercely. She almost broke through the pages with the nib of the feather quill. Tears fell from her eyes onto the page and she had a blank expression in her eyes.

Gylfie wanted to ask if she was okay, but she knew Otulissa's sassy attitude and didn't dare approach the spotted owl. Gylfie memorized the book number, put it back on the shelf and left the spotted owl to write down her thoughts. She needed to be alone for just a little bit. She started to take off out of the library but before she did, she prayed that her friend was okay. But on her way out, she felt the presence again…and it was about the fifth time that morning.

Otulissa sniffled as quietly as she could as she wrote in the blank notebook that she had gotten as a present from Strix Struma. Tears were smudging up the writing, but the poor spotted owl knew exactly what she had written down. And what she would write.

She held back a few sobs and shook her head. She was so hysterical sometimes. Why was she crying? Cleve wasn't something to cry over…or was he? She didn't know if she missed him or not- it was sort of just a pain for him.

She shook the thoughts away and changed her subject to Strix Struma. But what was the difference, she missed them both. She carefully disposed of the feather quill and blew on the ink to make sure it was dry. She then took the diary in her talons and flew out of the library, thinking of doing something else. She decided to go and hunt, she thought she was kind of hungry.

She shivered at the cooler weather and prepared to take off. She could still hear Twilight snoring his gizzard out in their hollow and she rolled her eyes. And she flew off, searching for some kind of prey to eat. But her full stomach cramped as she realized that she wasn't really hungry.

Suddenly, she heard something. It was very weird…it sounded like somebody was calling her. She excitedly thought of Cleve and alighted down on the nearest branch. She looked as hard as she could but couldn't seem to find anything. Where was he? She thought she could hear his voice. She shook her head and started to get ready to fly off, but she heard it again, that enchanting hoot of humor that she had known ever since she met the prince spotted owl.

She turned her head curiously. Where could he be? Owls in particular have very good eyesight so they can find prey and enemies quickly, but she wasn't seeing anything when she looked around the charred branches that was outside the territory of the Great Tree. She realized that she must be getting into Pure Ones' territory, and her heart leapt. She started to take off, but unexpectedly a sack flew over her and she squealed.

"Now, see here, girl, you must come with us." A crackled voice said. Otulissa's heart froze and she realized that she had been kidnapped. Kidnapped by the Pure Ones.

While this was happening, Gylfie was shifting around at tween time. Mrs. P, the snake that usually cleaned for the owls of the Tree, was serving as a table as the nest snakes usually did at meals.

Twilight was sitting across her by Soren. He was glaring at Gylfie. "I heard what you said last night. That wasn't very nice, you know that I can't help it when I snore." He looked away and started picking at his vole meat.

Gylfie shrugged. "Well, you deserve it, you frinking-"

"Okay, let's break this up, shall we?" Ruby called out. Martin shifted beside her and started to clean Gylfie's feathers gently to calm her down. She was sort of frazzled today and little saw-whet owl didn't know why. He was still caring for her anyway, whenever the cheerful elf owl was angry it usually meant something bad was happening.

Gylfie gave Martin a grateful smile. She was starting to develop a little crush on the owl. But she shook these thoughts away, starting to change the subject. "Well," she said. The broken silence seemed awkward. "So, um, how was today's chaw? Did you develop some kind of strength with the fire claws?"

But there wasn't a word and all of the owls picked at their food. Cheering up the owls at her table didn't seem to be working, so Gylfie stayed quiet. Why was there a quiet spell over the table today? It always was talkative at the table, especially at tween time. But the only table talking were the few that surrounded them. Otherwise, the owls at the Chaw of Chaws table were completely solemn. Something bad had happened, and Gylfie was dying to find out. But apparently not even Soren was telling her. What would be so bad that even her best friend wouldn't even tell her? She shook hear head and kept eating. She all of a sudden didn't feel very good.


	3. Desperate Search

**Hi to all of my faithful fans! Sorry I haven't been updating lately, but I will try to update at least three of my stories. YAY!!! Here's the chapter you've been waiting for. Thanks for waiting so long!**

Otulissa slowly peeked out of the voleskin sack. Where was she? A shiver ruffled her feathers- it definitely wasn't the Southern Kingdoms she had grown on…she tried to take a peek outside of the bag.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Cried a voice. It must have been one of the lieutenants of the Pure Ones; Otulissa guessed Stryker. "For the love of Glaux, get back under there and don't pry!" He yelled.

"Lighten up," the spotted owl grumbled. She prayed to Glaux that Stryker didn't hear her. It seemed that they were in mid-flight- they must have been flying one of the vicious updrafts of the- Northern Kingdoms? Were they really heading to that Glaux-forsaken place? Otulissa didn't really think this, but she was grumpy. Any normal owl would if they were captured by the Pure Ones.

She silently prayed that she would get there safely. And more than ever, she hoped that she would remain alive through this strange and sudden journey… Suddenly, she thought of Cleve, and included him in her prayers to Glaux.

The moon shone through the sack. Otulissa sighed and wished she could catch some of the moon's beautiful lust- that she could fly out of here and back to the Great Tree. But she shook her head and remained in the sack. Sometime she would get out of here…hopefully soon.

Enough of this! She was so weak! She was actually hoping that she would get out of here or possibly find Cleve! Nonsense! She would never get out of here, let alone find Cleve.

Stryker shifted the sack to his other talon. It seemed that he was getting tired…was she really that heavy? Perhaps he was running on an empty stomach- Otulissa wouldn't be surprised. Nyra was very unforgiving, didn't care about any of her owls. Perhaps, in a while, Stryker would drop down to hunt. That was the perfect time to move out! It was an easy operation- Stryker wasn't the sharpest of owls.

But it didn't seem that he was going to drop down soon- tween time was approaching and the crows would be coming out soon. The vicious black birds were only awake in the day and placed assaults on random owls, almost always killing them. An owl was only safe if they had gotten ahold of a crow feather- that was an access pass to travel through the land in the daytime.

Otulissa sighed and wondered when she would ever get out, if she would ever get out, and if she would be alive if she ever got out.

Soren frantically tossed a piece of bedding. He, along with the band and the Chaw of Chaws, were searching their hollow. Glyfie had disappeared, had been gone since tween time. Although it was daytime, the worried owls were intent on finding the small owl.

"Glyfie! Where are you?" He cried, throwing out some rabbit ear moss. Eglantine caught it quickly and hooted, "What do you think you're doing? Throwing out rabbit ear moss as if it's just regular bedding? Glyfie may be special to us, but don't you think we are taking it a little too seriously?" She pinched two of her talons together to indicate 'a little'.

Twilight nodded angrily. "Yes, I agree with Eglantine! We are just doing this for nothing! What if Glyfie is just out hunting for a midday snack?" He looked around at the band's unbelieving faces.

"Twilight," Ruby growled irritably, "You're the only one I know that is brave enough to go out into crow-infested lands just to get a midday snack. Do you really think Glyfie would be out there just to hunt?" She swooped low above the great gray's head and pulled out a feather angrily.

"Okay, you're asking for it!" Barked Twilight, infuriated at the owl's behavior towards him. Shouldn't other owls treat a great gray with respect? He hurled himself at Ruby and wildly whooped as he flayed his talons out in front of him.

"STOP!" Screamed Soren. "Guys, stop it! Starting fights and attacking each other won't help us find Gylfie!"

"And is everything about Glyfie?" Hooted Digger. "Great Glaux, in case you haven't noticed, Soren, Glyfie is perfectly capable of fending for herself on her own out there. Her size isn't an excuse for getting in danger!" The band stared at him incredulously. Digger was usually a peaceful one, not usually one that would join in on a debate with direct offense.

"I think Digger has a point," Soren said slowly. "But let's wait until tween time. If Gylfie isn't back by then, something must be wrong…" His voice trailed off at the thought of the tiny owl getting into some kind of trouble.

Eglantine happily placed the rabbit ear moss she had retrieved into her own spot. Twilight ruffled his feathers. "What do you think you're doing?" He yelled arrogantly.

Soren's sister shrugged. "It looked like you guys didn't seem to want this 'junk'," she teased. And Eglantine settled down onto the softest moss in the five Kindoms.

Meanwhile, an elf owl with a crow feather nestled in her feathers nervously roamed the dark lands of the Shadow Forest. This was where that presence inside her had taken her- had told her to go. She had seen two barn owls, a burrowing owl, a spotted owl, and a great gray, all being attacked right here, right where she was going. She had to save her friends.

But nobody said it was easy. The Shadow Forest was quite a big place- there was no telling where they were being assaulted. She had been constantly peering into the pines and birches, most of them containing some grumpy owl or crow that had rudely shooed her away. Surely they would be here…she had seen it in her dreams…and when she had waken up, the band wasn' t there…they weren't in the hollow…

Glyfie hurriedly shook the horrifying thoughts out of her head and kept on scanning the trees. They had to be somewhere…

Suddenly, a moon-faced owl swooped in on her. And it wasn't any old owl…Gylfie froze as she recognized the shape of Nyra, leader of the Pure Ones, her worst fear. The barn owl clawed at Glyfie's wings so they would be disabled, and then took the poor elf owl in her talons. Glyfie was kidnapped.


End file.
